Pray For Them

In less than a week, I will be located right in the middle of a foreign country on the direct opposite side of the world where the very thing I am called to do there is mostly outlawed. I will be in a country where billions of people paint red around their door in hopes that evil spirits will "pass over" their homes when they come looking for souls to devour. I will be in a country where people put their hope in their dead, lifeless ancestors as a means to obtain satisfaction in life and in the afterlife. I will be in a spiritually lost place where they literally pray to unknown gods just like the greeks in Acts 17. All I ask is that you pray for them. Pray for open hearts and for souls seeking after that which we know is truth. Pray for them that they may see and know Jesus. Pray, that as soon as I step off that plane, for someone to see me and know I can bring to them eternal hope in Christ. Pray that I might be an effective servant, willing to be bold for the gospel, even if it may cost me. Pray that God might be magnified in me by my willingness to be obedient to Him and that He may be magnified in them as they choose to worship Him. Please pray that I might be like Paul in Acts 17 so that that they may hear and know truth in their lost, lost world. Pray earnestly for their salvation. Until I return to testify of the work of the Lord Jesus, pray.

The Fetal Position

As I was driving to Lexington from Bowling Green yesterday, I had two hours to think about anything. For some reason I don't know, I ended up thinking about the fetal position. Of all things to think about, this is one that I would call random. Here is what I thought.
I've always wondered why we were created in the womb and formed into the fetal position. For those of you who have more than a high school freshman level of biology, I'm sure you could enlighten me. The position in itself isn't the most comfortable position, especially with your knees crammed up in your grille. It hurts my back, and it makes me go numb if I stay in it a long time. I just find it odd, because I prefer to have room so I can stretch out a bit.
But then I was thinking, "What if you were in the fetal position with your head facing downwards?" If you think about it, with your head facing the ground, your knees would be on the ground. You would be in the most humbling position and the most defenseless position you could possibly obtain. And that is exactly what the Lord deserves from us. He deserves our worship to the point where we are so humbled to be in His presence that we give up all rights to ourselves in order to be in His presence. He deserves the honor and respect of the King of Kings and Lord of Lords. When our hearts are humbled and when we kneel to humble oursevles in His presence, that is what we do.
I just found it extremely interesting that God formed us in the womb in a position that, when turned on our knees, will glorify Himself. We were created in a position used for the worship of our creator. Just something to think about.

Is the Thief in Heaven Without Baptism?

Today, as I was talking theology with my Church of Christ buddy, he presented an interesting thought to me. You see, those in the Church of Christ denomination believe baptism is necessary for salvation. They will quote Acts 2:38 and Mark 16:16 saying that Scripture demands baptism for eternal life. I disagree with their interpretation, because the translation from Greek, which is how those books were written, to English is not perfect. When you go back to study the original texts, you will see that baptism is not necessary for salvation. I will leave that for you to check out.
In our discussion today, talking about baptism, I said that the thief on the cross was a perfect example that baptism is not necessary for salvation. The reason I said that was because I have always been taught he was in Heaven. I didn't know why I could say he was in Heaven, the fact was that I only said he was there because of my upbringing. See my previous post, and you should see how this discussion helped me to "check it out" for myself. His point to me was that we cannot be sure of this assumption. He told me that because the two theives died before Christ that His blood had not forgiven their sins, which means they were still under the old covenant. I thought for a minute, and I couldn't respond. So, I checked it out, and found the answer in John 19.
The answer is that Christ had died before the two theives, because their legs had to be broken in order for them to die so they wouldn't be hanging on the Sabbath. They didn't break Christ's legs, because He was already dead. All this leads to is another way to show and prove that it is a safe and Biblical truth that the theif is truly in Heaven, as if the proper studies of Acts and Mark aren't decisive enough and as if Christ's very words in Luke 23:42-43 don't seal the deal. Christ's atoning blood had been shed for them already. He was forgiven in the eyes of the Holy God because of the blood, and thus was allowed entrance into Heaven without baptism or works of any kind.

Could Christ Have Come Off the Cross?

All too often in our world today we hear a fact or a comment and assume it to be true irregardless of any research done to prove the statement's validity. I will not lie, so I confess I frequently find myself guilty of doing this very thing. The problem here is that some of the time those statements that appear to be true are in fact false, but because we assume them to be truth we end up spreading subtle lies.
This is not only a problem from a secular worldview in the fact that no one inherently wants to be told false information, but it is an enormous problem from my Christian worldview. You see, Satan works in many ways trying to get people to believe a false doctrine about God. Since Satan is the father of lies, we can safely assume that he will use any means possible to alter the truth of the Gospel. One of the ways he does this is by false teaching within the Church. Everywhere you look in the Bible you will see warnings to be aware of false teachers because they destroy the Body of Christ. Both 1 and 2 Timothy are examples. So, the question is how do we guard against false teaching. The answer is to verify every doctrine and word you are taught by "checking it out." We can not just assume everything taught to be truth, because that is exactly how Satan will subtly use his power to undermine the Church. We must be dilligent to seek out truth and not just another man's opinion.
This brings me now to my point. All too often in church I hear the statement, "Christ could have come off the cross. He chose to stay there because He loved us, but He could have called angels from Heaven to take Him off the cross." I believed this for a long time without verifying it , but after meditating on the Word and on this statement, I have come to disagree with it until someone can give me a Biblical explanation. Let me explain what I mean.
1 Timothy 2:1-4 states, "First of all, then, I urge that entreaties and prayers, petitions and thanksgivings, be made on behalf of all men, for kings and all who are in authority, so that we may lead a tranquil and quiet life in all godliness and dignity. THIS IS GOOD AND ACCEPTABLE IN THE SIGHT OF GOD OUR SAVIOR, WHO DESIRES ALL MEN TO BE SAVED AND TO COME TO KNOWLEDGE OF THE TRUTH," emphasis mine. Hebrews 13:8 states, "Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever." What I want to point out here is that God the Father, and Jesus since He is God the Son, desires and longs for all men to be saved. That is part of God's nature. Not only does He want men to be saved, He is changeless meaning that He has always wanted men to be saved, He wants men to be saved today, and He will forever want man to be saved. This helps define God: one who always longs for man's salvation.
This also goes along well with 1 John 4:7-21, which tells of another part of God's changeless nature: namely, God's infinite love for man. In order for God to both love us and long for our salvation knowing that people are inherent sinners(Romans 3:23) that can not obtain salvation on our own, God had to act. The penalty of sin is death (Romans 6:23), and the only way for us to live or to be saved was by the pouring of sinless blood that would defer God's wrath(Heb. 9:22). The ONLY way for spotless, perfect, sinless blood to be shed was for God Himself to come to earth, in the form of a man, and die, because there is no sinless blood on earth due to the sin nature mentioned in Romans 3:23. This is exactly what happend when Jesus Christ, the very essence of God the Father, came to earth and was crucified. He was the spotless blood that was acceptable to God the Father that would be a propitiation for our sins so that man could be saved. That is the epitomy of love, that Jesus would die for us just to see our salvation. Christ verified His very nature of love and longing to see man's salvation by dying for us.
But, could Christ have come off the cross? The answer I have is no. If Christ comes off the cross then man would have no way of being saved since the spotless blood only found in God would not have been shed for us. We would still be unforgiven, and we would never be saved. If Christ came off the cross, He would have denied His very nature of love and of longing for man's salvation. This means He would have denied to be God. He would have denied His very being. Christ had to stay on the cross to be God and could never call angels to take Him off lest He do the impossible and cease to be God. Because Christ is God, because He longs for man's salvation, beccause He is love, and because He is changless, Jesus Christ was forced by His own will and nature as God to stay on the cross, and He could not have come off the cross by any method and still be God or Savior. Praise be to God.